Monday, September 12, 2011

Easy French Cooking

Easy and French cuisine rarely are heard in the same sentence. Yet you can create tasty Gallic influenced foods in no time at all. There are many dishes that can be whipped up without a maximum of toil and trouble. They're not only great mais tres facile!

Crepes are one of the easiest French dishes to make. The batter can be made anywhere from an hour to a night before and let stand. All it it takes is flour, melted butter or olive oil and a cup of milk along with salt and two eggs. Crepe batter is similar to pancake batter but should be a tad thinner (this comes from a good whisking). Lightly grease a crepe or regular frying pan and that's it. Finish with a sprinkle of sugar and cinnamon for a sweet meal. You can also stuff crepes with shredded ham and cheddar cheese and let the hot crepe cook them up. Another idea is filling crepes with canned chicken ala king. This makes for a really yummy dinner and one even kids will enjoy. You can also saute tomatoes , squash,eggplant and onion together for a quick ratatouille filling .

Another quick French meal is steak au poivre, steak with peppercorns. This bistro fave just requires steak , then coating it in salt and peppercorns. It is quickly pan fried.Use the drippings and cognac along with butter, dark stock and shallots to create a yummy sauce. Serve with fries for a true Parisian meal. Croque monsieur is another easy dish. Basically it's just a fried in butter grilled cheese with ham. You can make a bechamel sauce for it or add an fried egg to create a croque madame. After a busy day, this is a fun dinner to make and also a satisfying one.

French cooking isn't all fancy dishes and complicated time consuming sauces. You can have a tasty Parisian meal in just minutes. Best of all it's also tasty and filling and just as good as any multistep Gallic dish.

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